We are all in the gutter
by zigolo
Summary: Vader gets caught by the Rebellion and eight years old Luke gets tossed into the mix. Observe and discuss.


Summary: Vader gets caught by the Rebellion and eight years old Luke gets tossed into the mix.

Observe and discuss.

 **A/N:** So I was reading this lovely fic by sparkling where Luke gets kidnapped by Imperials (Vader) a lot. So I started wondering what would happen if Vader got caught by Rebellion instead.

Vader is suitless in this fic because I'm hopeless hopeless trash.

And Luke is a child because child!Luke is a weapon if mass destruction.

Also no Beta 'cause I'm lazy bastard.

Uncle Owen was yelling at someone outside.

Luke had been preparing dinner with his Aunt Beru, when the commotion had started. His Aunt had thrown him a worried glance and asked him to finish setting the table. Then she had went outside and Luke had sneaked quietly after her, peeking by the door.

"I won't have it. I absolutely won't have it!" Uncle Owen was shaking his fist at someone. It took Luke a second to recognize 'the crazy old hermit' Ben.

Ben was wearing a harried expression. His face was unnaturally pale and there was something wild and desperate in his eyes.

"You told us you would leave him alone when you brought him! You promised!"

Uncle Owen's face was red with rage, and even Aunt Beru seemed to be clenching her fists in anger.

"You can't just take him, like he's some sort of- some sort of old droid part on sale!

Ben's voice was quiet and urgent. Luke couldn't make out what he was saying but Aunt Beru's mouth falls open and Uncle suddenly looks like someone punched him in the face.

"What do you mean captured! What sort of nonsense are you spouting now-"

They keep going on like this for what feels like forever: Ben keeps talking with urgent pleading look on his face. Aunt shakes her head silently from time to time and Uncle's face keeps getting paler and paler.

There is a pregnant pause. During which Uncle and Aunt both exchange glances and lower their heads in what seems almost like defeat.

"Luke" His Aunt suddenly calls, voice wavering slightly. Luke is uncertain if he is about to get yelled at for eavesdropping, but Aunt Beru's voice sounds oddly quiet.

"Luke, please come over here."

Luke goes.

Luke is going to be travelling out of Tatooine for the first time in his life and it is going to be amazing.

Aunt Beru had hugged him tightly for a long moment, and told him that old man Ben needed Luke to come with him to do something very important.

What this important thing was, no one seemed to be willing to tell him. Uncle Owen had placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently.

"If you start to really miss home you can come back." He had thrown a filthy look at Ben when he said this. " No matter what _anyone_ says, this is your home and you can come back whenever you want to."

This had all sounded terribly ominous and rather exciting to Luke. He was suddenly going on an adventure and nobody seemed to know when he would be coming back.

Aunt Beru had helped him pack some of his clothes inside ratty old backpack while Uncle Owen and Ben waited outside. Luke had made sure to pack his beloved toy T-16 Skyhopper model too. No way was he leaving it behind.

When all had been packed his aunt took his hand and slowly walked him outside, where Uncle and Ben were waiting.

"Just remember Luke," she said, "Anytime you want to come home, you can."

There were tears in her eyes, leaking down her face, when Ben lifted him on a rusty old Airspeeder.

"No matter what."

The desert was quiet around them, darkness having fallen a while ago. After three hours of driving, mostly in silence, Luke had started to despair at the state of this adventure of his.

Ben had been deep in his own thoughts and had spared Luke only couple words and an blank stare, when he asked if he could fly the speeder too.

The answer had been a very disappointing and predictable 'no'.

Awfully hypocritical of Ben when you considered that their Airspeeder was almost certainly stolen property. Luke didn't remember seeing Ben flying one before, on all these years he had lived on Tatooine.

Other than that short interaction, nothing interesting had happened and Luke had started to worry.

He certainly couldn't tell Biggs about an adventure that started 'I sat three hours on a speeder and nothing really happened.'

Most boring start for an adventure ever in the whole wide history of adventures.

There was suddenly a rumbling sound and sand everywhere. Luke blinked his eyes and tried to see through the dust and quickly cheered up feeling his lips stretch into a grin.

He had been bored out of his mind just minutes ago but now?

Now things were looking up. Luke watched fascinated as Ben pulled the Airspeeder to stop and exchanged greetings with some important looking people, then placed his hand on Luke's shoulder and started herding him towards a ship.

A real ship. Right there in front of him. It was big. Bigger than Homestead. He could hear the loud hum of the engines and felt tingling excitement in his stomach.

He tucked Ben's robes. "That's our ship right," he whispered. Not wanting any of the strangers hear his question in case they thought it was silly. "We are really going to fly in space?"

Ben, who had been grim faced and restless for their whole trip here smiled down at him. He looked tired.

"Yes Luke." Old warm hand came to rest on his head. "When we arrive to our destination I need you to meet someone."

"Who?" Luke asked.

Ben didn't answer.

Disappointingly he had not been allowed to fly the ship either.

It had been hard to remain still when he was so excited. He had been strapped down and told to try to sleep a little. Luke had given Ben a incredulous stare and started practically jumping up and down on his seat. No matter where he looked there was something new and amazing to gaze. He was on a spaceship. A proper spaceship! Going on a proper adventure. Even if it was with Ben but still, an adventure!

Luke was soon lost in a fantasy where he was flying his own ship among the stars, discovering new worlds, when Ben lightly touched his shoulder and asked, "Luke are you listening?"

"Wha- huh?" Luke blinked and looked up at the old man. Ben was looking at him with weary expression and Luke sensed he was feeling deeply troubled by something.

It wasn't Ben's expression that betrayed his feelings, rather there seemed to be a almost visible cloud around him that whispered anxiety and conflicted feelings to Luke.

How weird.

"Luke, there is something I should tell you before-" Ben seemed to have trouble swallowing. "Before we arrive where we are meant to go."

Luke straightened his back and placed his hands on his lap. The perfect example of an attentive child.

"Okay, I'm listening."

Ben just stared at him for a moment, seeming to have trouble finding the words. After a minute he let out a long sigh and said. "There is an old - friend of mine I would like you to meet."

Luke frowned a little, trying to picture Ben's friend in his mind. Another crazy old hermit? And likely from another planet too. Didn't seem very exciting. Luke would need to spice things up a bit with a dozen space pirates and an exploding spaceship when he later told Biggs about this.

"And this friend of mine he is-" again Ben seemed to struggle for the right words. Luke could hear him muttering under his breath ' _how do I tell this to a child?'_ and felt little affronted. Ben could just talk normally to him, really, there was no need to speak to him like a little child.

When Luke told Ben this he just shook his head a little and said. "My friend he has been… very ill for a very long time." Ben finished and looked like he wasn't very happy with his own explanation. Good, Luke wasn't either.

"He's been ill? Like fever or something?" Luke could tell that wasn't it.

"No. He-" Ben rubbed his forehead and looked very tired. "He has not been himself for a very long time."

Ben seemed to be looking at something or somewhere that wasn't really here.

"He has been lost… lost for many years."

Luke lifted his hand and laid it on Ben's arm. "You look sad."

Ben smiled at him and that somehow made him look even sadder.

"I know you don't really understand… How could you? How I am placing you into a awful situation. How I am being terribly unfair to you."

Ben closed his eyes for a minute, then two and when he finally looked back at Luke there was something unsettling and painful in his eyes.

"But this is his last chance… after this there will be no more… And it seems, in the end I am willing to risk all. Even you, for this final chance."

Ben looked at him and said. "I need you to save my friend."

"Oh, well…" Luke fiddled the hem of his shirt nervously. "I'll try?" It came out sounding more like a question but Ben seemed to finally calm down. Had he been tense this whole time?

"That is all I ask."

In the end Luke fell asleep somewhere between home and unknown and dreamed of many twinkling stars and of darkness between them.

He was feeling warm and floaty and there seemed to be something sticky running down his jaw. He blinked his eyes, confused when he noticed that he wasn't in his room, lying on his own bed.

Ben was shaking him little. "We have arrived."

Luke blinked some more and absently rubbed some drool off his jaw with his sleeve. Arrived? Arrived where?

They had landed on a hangar of some sort. There seemed to be people milling around, mostly in different uniforms and (Luke did a double take when he noticed this) there seemed to be X-wings parked, not at all far from their ship.

"Woah." Luke said eyes sparkling and turned to Ben ready to plead.

"No." Ben said before Luke even managed to ask. How stingy.

He was marched down a corridor by Ben and then to a elevator (Luke had to suppress a urge to start pushing buttons). On their way many people nodded at Ben and muttered 'General Kenobi' in a very respectful manner. Luke looked curiously up at Ben, waiting for an explanation but Ben didn't seem to notice him. He was, once again lost in his own thoughts, his hand on Luke's shoulder was trembling just slightly.

Luke patted it. No reaction.

Should he try stomping on Ben's toes?

Before he went for it Ben let out a deep sigh and seemed to pull himself together with great effort. Almost without conscious thought his hand took hold of Luke's smaller one.

Luke was eight years old and normally would have been scandalised. He didn't even hold hands with Uncle Owen or Aunt Beru, let alone with semi-stranger like Ben.

But… even though Ben's hand was no longer trembling it was cold and holding onto Luke's tightly. His face was blank but he was afraid, that much was clear. So for this one time Luke allowed him to hold onto his hand and squeezed back gently.

They were off again, this time walking down a dingy looking hallway. Luke could hear voices of several people arguing loudly ahead.

"… not in his right mind! What does he think his actions will accomplish? Nothing! He will only doom us all…"

"… Do you think we are not aware of that? We all know he's clutching straws. Does anyone know…"

"Bail. Ahsoka. I see that I have been missed" Ben said airily. Luke watched as two adults- One man and one togruta woman- went still and turned to face them.

"You actually brought him." The man blinked at Luke, seeming torn between disbelief and anger. "After all these years of keeping him safe. All the secrecy and lies. Are you, Obi-Wan truly going to just toss the poor boy to _that man_!"

The woman, Ahsoka looks at Luke with wide eyes for a moment, seeming speechless and then turns her eyes to glare at Ben with angry hiss.

Luke looks from Ben to these strangers, confused. Obi-Wan? Who is that? The new man called Ben that, so it is probably his name. Whatever it's his real name or fake name Luke can't suddenly even begin to guess. This Ben seems so different from the old hermit Luke had learned to know. This Ben stood calm and tall in front of the seething man and the furious looking woman.

"I assure Luke will be safe the whole time. I will not let anything bad happen to him."

The woman laughs. An awfully hollow sound that makes Luke take a step back.

"If you truly wanted him safe you would have never brought him here!" She steps forward and seems to fight down temptation to throw a punch, if clenching of her fists are any clue.

"What do you expect him to do! It has been eight years and he's been here almost a week without any progress. It's not fair to ask a child to try to do something that even you and I couldn't! There's no talking to him. He's set in his ways."

"Ahsoka, you know very well that in this case Luke is not just _any child_."

There's a silence. Heavy with some unknown meaning. Luke desperately wants to ask but doesn't quite dare.

"It's cruel. And not fair to Luke-"

"The alternative is not much fairer, is it." Ben says with even tone that somehow works better than if he had yelled.

The man- Bail steps forward. Hands spread out in calming gesture.

"There is no need to do this now. You have both had a long trip and must be tired. There is no reason why this-" he pauses, apparently trying to find a proper word, or perhaps just a polite one. "- attempt of ours can not wait until tomorrow."

Luke is not feeling tired at all, and loudly informs them of this.

"- and besides Ben just asked me to talk. So it's not a big deal." Luke shrugs, hopefully in confident way. There is a ominous feeling rising inside of him. Warning him that whatever Ben wants from him is not going to be quite as simple as that.

"Do you…" Ahsoka starts to ask, with uncertain air, "Do you know for sure who you are going to meet. Has Obi-Wan explained that to you?"

Luke glances at Ben warily when the old man tenses and says carefully, "His friend? He said his friend has been lost and ill and wants me to talk to him?"

Although that was not all Ben had asked. Ben had wanted Luke to _save_ his friend. Why he thought Luke capable of that, he had no idea. But he had only asked Luke to try. He didn't mind trying as long as Ben didn't expect miracles from him.

 _Luke dearly hoped Ben wasn't expecting miracles_.

This answer didn't seem to please Ahsoka, who turned her face back to Ben so fast Luke almost heard her neck snap.

"Oh he's meeting your _friend,_ is he?" She asked silkily. " _This_ is how you are going to do it! By throwing them together and see what happens!" She screeched.

"Oh this can't go wrong at all!"

Bail had rubbed his face tiredly during this tirade and now lifted his eyes to them.

"General Kenobi, this is futile. Surely you can see that."

From the way the older man pursed his lips, no, he certainly couldn't see it.

Ben had been serenely listening them this whole time. The only way Luke knew he wasn't so calm under the façade was by the grip he had of his hand. It had been getting tighter by a minute.

"I agree it is getting late," he said, "and it is best to get… the _introductions_ out of the way before tomorrow. That way we can all sleep on it." he smiled tiredly.

Ahsoka and Bail seemed to strongly disagree but kept silent. With silent nod of her head Ahsoka summoned two uniform wearing men and murmured something to them. Luke spied them both carrying blasters on their hips.

Now they were walking down some stairs. The lights were the only things keeping the place bright as there were no windows of any size anywhere. They stopped in front of a heavy looking door with several armed men standing in guard.

An important looking officer asked honest to stars password from Ben and then had him say a string of numbers and letters. It was a long list and Luke was rather impressed that someone could actually remember it. Ahsoka and Bail both did the same. Luke was surprised to hear that Bail was a real Prince. And Ahsoka was someone important too, these guards called her Fulcrum in a very respectful tone.

There was a nervous feeling in pit of his stomach, spreading across his whole body. It made his hands tremble and heart race. There was something behind this door. Something foreign and familiar that made his breath stutter in his lungs.

When the door opened he quietly slipped behind Ben. Finally letting his hand fall free from his hold.

There was piercing coldness in the room. There was darkness that seemed to snarl at them for daring to enter. Luke stepped closer to Ben and took hold of his robe, suddenly afraid and feeling very much over his head. He and his stupid adventurous spirit! What had he gotten into?

It was too late for regrets. In the centre of that cold darkness sits a man.

Was this Ben's friend? Luke frowned and backtracked his earlier thought about this person being a human. He was certainly man shaped but where his legs should have been there was only a horrible mess of dark durasteel and ripped wires. Like someone had cut everything below his knees with a laser.

Was he a droid? Was Ben best friends with a droid?

Luke gave the old hermit critical once over. Huh. That would certainly explain some things.

Luke peers behind the old hermit, curious, trying to get a glimpse of the strangers face. The tattered black robe he is wearing is covering his eyes and nose, Luke can only see part of his lower face: it's very pale and there's a scar running down the right side.

His hands, Luke notices, are both bound with strange binders. Almost like bracelets on his wrists. Was he a criminal? The stranger appears to be asleep or at least unconscious. Ben, Ahsoka and Basil had stopped good two meters away from the man, unwilling to go closer.

Luke's earlier dread is replaced with burning curiosity. Who is this? Luke looks up at Ben only to freeze. Ben's grim face had gone even paler than it had been in the elevator. His eyebrows were furrowed in what looked like pain.

Should he hold his hand again, Luke wondered.

No matter, one of the guards has kneeled beside the prisoner and is pressing a hypospray to his neck. There's a hissing sound when the hypo empties and the guard takes quick steps back when the hooded stranger twitches violently.

Luke watches in utter fascination

The man twitches and groans quietly. There is a shaking movement where he tries to pull his broken legs closer to his body. His hands are hanging near his head, shaking and captured by binders.

There's a low snarl that turns into a full growl when the man catches them standing near him.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi," the man spits, trying very hard hide the slight slur of his words. The air in the room goes immediately even colder.

Luke braves a peek behind Ben's back. The man's face is now fully visible. There's a scar running over his eye. It looked kriffing cool in his humble opinion.

The strange man was hanging his head like it's too heavy to lift. This apparent weakness does nothing to hide the burning fire in his yellow eyes. It is very obvious he hates each and every person in this room with passion. Most of his hatred, however, seems to be hurled at Ben.

"Come to kill me, have you?"

He had an awfully hoity-toity way of speaking. Like all those rich looking folk you sometimes saw on news. High ranking Imperial Officers and such.

Ben's face does that odd expressionless thing that somehow still broadcasts his feelings very clearly to Luke. His eyebrows frown just little and he looks sadder than ever.

"No, my old friend. I have not come to kill you today."

Which is a pretty grim thing to say to your best friend, Luke privately thinks. Their conversation seems to go downhill from there. The man threatens Ben with torture and death and does not forget Bail or Ahsoka either. There are many hissed insults being exchanged with many more glares. The man seems to think that his Master, whoever that is will come to retrieve him and bring death and destruction along.

The man is just finishing hissing at Asoka a very impressive threat, that includes torture droids, imprisonment and public execution of galactic scale when Ben sighs "Anakin…".

Luke's head snaps up just as fast as the man's does.

"Anakin Skywalker," the man hisses maliciously. "Is dead. He was weak."

Oi.

"He was a fool. A mere puppet of-"

" _Oi_!"

Luke doesn't quite notice it when he steps forward, leaving the safety of Ben's robes. Doesn't quite realise he has raised his voice at this stranger and is in fact, currently waving his small fist at him. "That's a awful thing to say!"

There's a silence. It seems that most of the room had forgotten Luke's existence entirely. The stupid man raises an condescending eyebrow at him, eyes flashing with something like revulsion.

"Is this your _son_ ," the man mockingly asks, sneering at Ben. "Did you honestly _procreate_. So much for the JedI Code."

Luke contemplates the pros and cons of biting this man. There didn't seem to be much skin visible to actually bite at, but if he put his mind to it he was sure he could manage something. Not only has this Sith-head been insulting practically every adult in the room for the past ten minutes, he had to go after Luke's _dead father_.

As Biggs would say: It was _so_ on. Luke was going to make him eat his words!

"That is an awful thing to say about someone else's father!" Luke is rather proud how much pure anger he managed to throw at his words.

The earlier silence was nothing compared to the quiet that followed his words. It seemed like every adult in the room had stopped moving. Stopped _breathing_.

And the man, he was the most still of them all. Eyes wide and face ashen pale.

"… _What_." Came out the strangled whisper. Luke chided on.

"You better apologize."

" _What!"_

"'Cause dad would totally kick your ass if he was alive and I won't mind doing it for him at all!"

" _You!"_ The man jerked closer, eyes suddenly feverishly bright. Staring straight at Luke like he was a ghost. " _You_! _What is you name_!?"

Luke hesitated, stumped by the man's sudden intense interest.

"Aunt and Uncle say I shouldn't tell strangers my name." The man leaned closer, looking almost desperate in a very mad way, and Luke hastened to explain.

"Because you might try to follow me home and stuff…"

His explanation fell flat. The man was still staring at Luke with wide eyes, barely breathing.

Ah well, he might as well. If he followed him home Luke could always blame Ben.

"My name is Luke Skywalker." and then smugly, "My dad's name was Anakin Skywalker, just so you know." _How's that_ , _huh?_.

The quiet was still there but less. Ahsoka let out something that sounded like a sob. Ben was breathing behind him and Bail seemed to be either smiling or grimacing.

And the strange man stared on.

Slowly, as if in trance, he lifts one of his cuffed hands. Also Durasteel, Luke notices- and starts moving it towards Luke's face, almost like he was intending to place it on his cheek.

He doesn't quite make it there. His binders beep and suddenly his hand is yanked back to wall. The man lets out a roar of pure frustration and rage. " _NO_!" The darkness seems to multiply, swirling like a storm around them. The whole room appears to start trembling.

"I think it is time to go Luke." Ben is suddenly at his side, gripping his elbow. "This is enough for today."

"No!" the man yells after them. Struggling against his binders. " _BRING HIM BACK KENOBI! BRING HIM BACK AT ONCE_!"

Ben's grip stays on Luke's shoulder as they start walking away from the man, away from Ben's friend.

The guards, who had silently watched them this whole time were now fighting with the bound prisoner. Two of them were holding him down, one of them had a hypo ready to inject something.

" _Bring him back_!"

Luke hears the noise of hypo emptying and the man's words start to slur.

" _Luke…"_

The door closes and Ben is once again holding his hand.

 **A/N** : My chapter notes regarding that last bit went:

'Tries caress cheek. Fails. Rage. Luke gets taken away. More rage.'

This will probably be two-shot. We will see how much I can ramble about Skywalker family drama.


End file.
